THE WORST ANIME SHOWS OF 2010, part 3

I just finished up tallying up my Top 20 Anime Shows of 2010, and now it’s time to take a look at the other end of the scale. Over the past several months, I have sampled EVERY SINGLE ANIME SHOW that was produced between December 22, 2009 and December 21, 2010, and was subtitled into English. I only excluded blatant pornography and hard-core yaoi shows; in total, it added up to over 150 television series, movies, specials, one-shots and OVAs. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll kiss your sanity goodbye!

If that has not been bad enough to catapult you into uncontrollable seizures, then here’s some more crap!

#10 – Motto To Love-ru

Motto To Love-ru a.k.a. “Love Trouble” was a twelve-part weekly television series that aired during the fall of 2010, a sequel to the original “To Love-ru” anime series from 2008. Rito is wimpy Japanese high school student with low self esteem (apparently every single student is this way, based on what I see in anime) bemoaning that he’s too cowardly to confess to the girl of his dreams. But out of nowhere a voluptuous girl named Lala from the planet Deviluke arrives and says she wants to marry Rito, so she can avoid having to go back home and court various losers proffered by her royal father. This season picks up a year after Lala arrived on Earth, more determined than ever to capture Rito’s heart.

Oh boy! More harem anime, the salvation of the lonely hikikomori! Yet another example of a magical, mysterious girl showing up from another planet/dimension/place and falling for a lonely, loveless teenage guy. And also, yet another example of the same lonely, loveless teenage guy getting surrounded by all sorts of women vying for his attention! Yeah, I get it, this show is aimed at a very specific subset of viewers, who want to put themselves into the role of the protagonist and imagine being chased after by beautiful and/or exotic women, it’s been a standard in anime fandom for as long as there’s been anime fans doing the one-handed tango to the flicker of the boob tube in their parent’s basement. But really, the wanking fantasy show is just not something I’ve ever been able to get into, and all the wacky jokes that involve extreme sexual embarrassment are just, well, embarrassing.

#9 – Planzet

Planzet is an hour-long movie from May 2010, done entirely with computer-generated animation. In the mid-21st century, Earth has been besieged by a mysterious alien race (think Independence Day or War of the Worlds or Skyline), and now humanity is on the verge of extinction. Their last hope lies in a powerful weapon that lies beneath Mount Fuji, piloted by a reluctant hero.

Remember Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie from a decade ago? At the time, the animation was about the best that could be done at the time, which was amazing, yet still it fell deep into the heart of the uncanny valley. As for Planzet, the animation is about on par with Final Fantasy: that is to say, state-of-the-art MINUS ten years from today. And the animation of the characters are also deep in the uncanny valley, with the unnatural-looking realism breaking through the wall of believability. Yeah, the characters look like creepy animated mannequins — I wonder if we will *ever* reach a point where this type of animation appears natural.

But there’s more to Planzet than just creepy, dark animation. You also have to take into account the hackneyed, poorly-written story full of holes and stretching incredulity beyond comprehension. A giant weapon that *is* Mount Fuji itself, that was completely and secretly hidden away from everyone until the very last possible moment, and miraculously saves the planet from utter destruction? Uh, yeah. Crappy characters (and there’s like seven people total in the whole show; the big military base in Japan has, like, four people running it) who about as interesting as cardboard cut-outs; an incoherent plot with giant robots, and a dark, muddied, monochrome color palette? Yeah, don’t bother.

#8 – Sengoku Basara 2

Sengoku Basara 2 is a twelve-part weekly television series that aired during the summer of 2010, a sequel to the 2009 series and based on the popular video game franchise. The story is based (very) loosely on the early history of Japan, with warring factions engaging in endless battles for supremacy of the land. The second season picks up immediately where the first season left off, with the rise of Toyotomi Hideyoshi as the rising overlord.

Grab yourself a six-pack of beer and energy drinks, gather ’round your fighting buddies for a night of TESTOSTERONE FILLED ACTION!!!!11!1! If there was an anime version of extreme, no-holds-barred wrestling on Spike TV, this is what it would probably be like. Guys fighting other guys, fighting other guys endlessly over and over again in huge battled were dozens, hundreds, thousands die as overly-powerful warlords engage in increasingly-powerful fights with inhuman (to the point of comical) powers. It’s not just bad, it’s laughably bad.

#7 – Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector

Super Robot Wars O.G.: The Inspector is a 26-episode weekly television series based on the long-running and popular video game series, a sequel to the “Divine Wars” storyline. I won’t pretend to try and explain the plot, because it didn’t make a lick of sense and I had no idea what was going on. Basically, there are jerks in robots fighting against each other for some reason, they fight and fight and fight.

Y’know, most of the time I can puzzle out at least the basic concept of what is going on, but this is a complete mess. Add to that the fact that I had never heard of “Super Robot Wars” before (apparently it’s popular in those geeky mecha circles), and my distaste for the entire genre, and I knew immediately I would despise this show. But until I tried to watch the first episode, I didn’t realize just how god-awful this was. Might as well play the whole thing backwards it would make about as much sense. Tangentially, has there *ever* been a decent anime series that was based on a video game franchise? I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

#6 – Sora no Otoshimono Forte

Sora no Otoshimono Forte a.k.a. “Heaven’s Lost Property” is a twelve-episode weekly television series aired during the fall of 2010, a sequel to the 2009 anime series. Tomoki just wants to live a quiet and peaceful life, despite being surrounded by weirdos such as his violent childhood friend (and also love interest, of course!), a mad scientist, and another mean-spirited, sadistic friend. But his “peace and quiet” is interrupted one day when a beautiful “Angeloid” descends from the sky to become Tomoki’s servant. The second series picks up a year afterwards, with Tomoki settling in to his new life, and a new menace appears.

We’ve been over this before in the “Worst 20 of 2010” countdown already with Asobi ni Iku Yo as well as Motto To Love-ru. This is yet another combination of “magical girlfriend” cliches and “harem anime” nonsense. What makes this show particularly craptacular, making it worse than the other two shows, is the protagonist, Tomoki. In short, he’s not just a lowlife loser, but also an utter asshole and incredible pervert, with a disagreeable personality, annoying voice and no apparent redeeming characteristics whatsoever. In other bland harem/magical-girlfriend anime shows, the protagonist is usually a fairly colorless individual that acts as a surrogate for the viewer. In this case, however, I cannot imagine anyone wanting to imagine themselves in the place of this shithead.

Coming up next:More crapola around the corner with the fourth and final part of the WORST ANIME OF 2010! I’ve already spotlighted some eyebleedingly bad shows, could there possibly be anything worse? Then it’s ***finally*** on to 2011, with a preview of the Winter 2011 shows that I’ll be looking at.